Her only source of income at the time was collecting Employment Insurance and a child tax benefit.

The three offered no defence, as is their right, refusing to explain the seized cash or $24,104,021 worth of transactions between July 16, 2003, to May 17, 2005, at Calgary Foreign Exchange Ltd. outlets in Vancouver and Toronto.

After a month-long trial spread over the last three years, Giardini said police had not proven the money was the proceeds of crime, nor that the trio knew or believed it had an ill-gotten provenance.

Although Nam was a convicted pot producer and the three were tenuously linked by police to a handful of sophisticated grow operations, the judge was not persuaded that tainted the transactions.

“I am not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the only inference to draw from the circumstantial evidence is that the money the three accused exchanged came from the sale of Canadian marijuana in the U.S.,” Giardini wrote in her lengthy, detailed decision.

“Further, I am not satisfied it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused knew or believed the money they exchanged at Calforex was obtained or derived from the commission of a drug-related offence.”

Using first names to avoid confusion, the judge also acquitted Bich of a stand-alone account of possession of the proceeds of crime.

The three were charged in December 2009 after a four-year investigation that began with the chance encounter on May 17, 2005, between RCMP and Bich.

The Mounties were conducting surveillance on the Calforex outlet on Robson Street because they believed it was being used by criminals.

After Bich visited the exchange with a bulky black shoulder bag, they followed her vehicle to East Vancouver.

Police discovered $168,100 in $100 bills in the black satchel and $6,430 in mixed currency in a paper lunch bag. At the Calforex office, they retrieved $133,415 in U.S. currency that Bich had exchanged.

Investigators then searched four homes associated with the three and a Kingsway travel firm that was an alleged business front, seizing various financial documents.

The trio changed about $18 million US into $24 million Cdn through 178 transactions — $9.5 million via an Ontario branch of the money exchange, profits the RCMP said were from marijuana shipped east and south from B.C.

But the entire case was circumstantial.

“There is no direct evidence about the source of the U.S. currency that the three accused are said to have exchanged at Calforex, nor is there direct evidence of what happened to the Canadian currency after the exchanges,” Giardini explained.

She also had serious concerns about the Crown’s expert witness, an RCMP officer. He was less than objective, so she gave little weight to his report and rejected his conclusion that the money was the proceeds of crime.

“In order to prove that the currency exchanged by the three accused was obtained by crime, the Crown must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the money was obtained or derived by the commission of a criminal offence,” Giardini said.

Prosecutors failed to do that.

“I acknowledge that the evidence led by the Crown, particularly the number of transactions and the amount of U.S. currency that was exchanged into Canadian currency, raises suspicions,” Giardini said.

“However, in a criminal case not only is an accused person presumed to be innocent but the Crown is required to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and not on a balance of probabilities.”

That’s a pretty big benefit of the doubt.

While the Crown thinks about an appeal, that last phrase should also prompt the Justice Ministry to consider civil forfeiture — if it hasn’t already.

The forfeiture law requires proof only on the “balance of probabilities” but, more importantly, the civil process requires respondents provide full disclosure during the discovery process — you don’t get to mutely sit there while a $24-million question hangs in the air.

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